However, now that I’ve become domesticated I have acquired hobbies. Here in the United States people inquire about your profession.  But in other places, the interesting thing about a new acquaintance is their hobbies.  I guess in other countries people have time to have hobbies?

Whatever.  I’m not sure how I can possibly keep the scrapbooks that I began when I realized the inherited 70s collections were rotting.  I don’t know how I’ll ever finish them.  That’s a whole accidental hobby by itself.  And there is the related and completely time-consuming family history and genealogy.

Unrelated I have sewing.  Sewing is practical.  And I might argue that it is necessary.  But that would be silly since we won’t go naked if I don’t sew.  I rarely sew garments.

I also have this blog.

So now I have acquired hobbies, a fair amount of accessories for each, and have very little time.  If the girls didn’t just look elven, but could actually behave like elves and help me, then we could do all of the hobbies.  That is not likely to happen anytime soon.  DD7 has her own scrapbook.  It’s great.  But it looks like a seven year old did it (as it should).  So I probably shouldn’t hand over the scrapbooking scissors and irreplaceable photographs.  DD1 harasses DD7 from under the kitchen table, trying to climb up into her lap and grab things off the table.  So… scrapbooking is out as a family activity.

Ditto genealogy, blogging and sewing.

Boo, hiss.

We do sort of exercise together.  I have rubberbands that I use to work out.  I purchased more of them so that we could all share and nobody would fuss over not getting to hold one.  But DD1 wants whichever one someone else is holding, regardless of whether or not she has one, nearly identical, in her own hands.  DD7 has only a marginally better attitude.  She doesn’t covet the rubber band I’m using.  She instead wants to jump over one like jump-rope, in the house next to lamps, hook one over her sister, or swing one wildly like a whip.  She appears unable or unwilling to remember this from day to day.  Either way, somebody ends up laying on the floor yelling.

Sometimes I think it should be me.

Still Unpacking

I have made myself a to do list for today.  I’ve decided not to look beyond any task that I can’t finish quickly, or today.  I doubt I’ll get through it.  But I’ll make progress.  Completed so far:  dishes, laundry, bathed baby, got DD5 off to school safely.

I am finally getting sick of having nothing on the walls.  I have been holding off on hanging any artwork until we’ve unpacked and the furniture is arranged.  But of course, it looks like a bunker in here.  And there are three rooms that are in pretty decent order:  both bathrooms and the master bedroom.  The two bathrooms actually look pretty good.  The bedroom is currently overcrowded.  But that’s another story.  So I’ll probably hang one thing.  It can keep me and the baby company while I clean and unpack.

Adding to my monstrous task list is the mothball disaster.  We have received eight bags of children’s clothing.  We love this usually.  And I ‘ve been holding off shopping for the girls to see what is in the bags.  Four of the bags, the ones containing baby clothes, were full of mothballs.  Wtf?  Seriously, naphthalene in baby clothes?  Putting poison on the clothing of the smallest most defenseless humans on the planet?  This makes no sense.  And if I had any idea there were mothballs inside, I’d have said, thanks but no thanks.

But alas, the mothballed clothing was already here.  I washed it.  I washed it again.  I finally spread it out all over the porch to air.  I nearly threw it in the trash.  No reason to pollute my car and donate poisonous clothing!

Mothball Cleanup

The moral of this story:  never say thank you for clothing hand-me-downs without opening the bag first.  If mothball smell comes out, politely decline, do not pass go, do not collect $100.  I wasted an incredible amount of time cleaning these nasty things, stunk up my washer and washroom, and got a horrific headache.

I finally got the odor out by first airing the clothing, then soaking in hot water and washing soda.  Then cleaning.  So there is the how-to.  It works.  I don’t recommend trying it.  Just throw that stuff in the trash.

I would really like to sew something.  In order to do this I must finish unpacking.  Getting to the sewing part could take several more days, spread out over weeks.  So off I go.

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Needless to say, the place is a mess. And I am going to have to break down and donate some more items. Because I cannot possibly refashion them fast enough. And I don’t want the clutter.

I did bust some fabric stash though, by finally refashioning my curtains and reusing the blackout fabric to make new blackout drapes. That took up seven yards of toile, which sadly, is nothing. I still have three yards of that pattern toile occupying a roll in the corner, two bins full of fabric, and random bits stored in drawers and closets.

I refuse to become my mother. I refuse to become my mother… My mother had an entire closet full of fabric, plus random stash around the house, and did nothing with it. So I’m already ahead of her game by actually sewing things. But still, the mess must be contained. I attempt to keep it to the two bins and forbid myself from buying anything else until any overflow is sewn up.

This is what happens when one forgets to use drywall screws.

Oops, forgot to use the drywall screws.

I marked the (new) locations, made the pilot holes, then forgot to set the anchors. Instead, I just put in the generic screws that came with the drapery rod. And put up my very heavy blackout drapes. Then I went to sleep.

Fortunately, this happened first thing in the morning. It would have really sucked if the drape fell down in the middle of the night. Between the street light on the corner and the neighbors holiday decorations, the front of my house is as bright as a runway. It would have been like the sun rising with a big thud.

Not that we slept anyway. DH kept moving around. I forgot to take my allergy medicine and woke up itchy. Then DD crawled into our bed crying, and with a fever.

SSs birthday bash was a success. Aunt D found a lot of old photos of SS and hung them up. And his little cousins decorated with hand drawn congratulations posters. There was one withering look sent across the room. But other than that it was all chummy chaos, which is good stuff.

DD pestered me all week to make certain MILs friend would attend. Then she didn’t pay him much attention.

I have scheduled activities for DD every day this coming week. So she won’t be bored having the time off from school. I hope she feels better tomorrow and can enjoy herself. If not, at least she has plenty of time to rest.

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DD in front of one of the Camellia Sasanqua

I walked past my friend in the library today, then around her. I was confused by the enormous hair. We had a laugh at that. She said her husband greeted her this morning by addressing her hair. She was not appalled by the massive volume of unopened mail like DH is. She seemed to recognize it.

When I have enormous hair, which happens far too often, DH says things like “Baby, you look like the 80s!”

My Camellia Sasanqua are blooming. I love them. Camellia Japonica do not grow in my yard. Too much sun.

Camellia Sasanqua

I was asked to take a clerical test for some online work. That could be good. We’ll see.

I made an ass of myself at the school, yet again and handed my website address to the wrong teacher, thinking we had talked about directions on how to make a reversible jumper. Ugh. She looked at me blankly. A minute later, I realized my mistake and apologized and gave the information to the correct person. I should really stop trying to be helpful. I always manage to screw it up.

I am attempting to convince myself to participate in NaNoWriMo in January. I know I could not accomplish it in December, and November has already begun. I am going to have to do it if I will ever write anything longer than a blog post. Because for years, I’ve had books in my head. And they never make it to paper. So I’m going to have to make some sort of commitment.

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Dammit! by gfpeck

My copy of Quicken has stopped accepting data from any bank. Which DH says hardly seems fair since I did pay for it. Right. Annoying. Investigated and tried Online Quicken, which stinks. Ascendo which is beautiful if you only keep one month of data but otherwise locks up. That defeats the purpose of tracking the data in my opinion. And Mint, which doesn’t keep track of upcoming bills, but is otherwise quite nice. However, since no bill tracking not so useful.

Ack.

Very few responses to DDs birthday invitations. Which I’m told is the norm, that people just show up. So, how am I supposed to know how much cake to get? Or worse, dealing with the aftermath of a small child whose classmates said they were coming – because they have no idea of their family schedules – and then do not appear. This is why I hunted down a parent a few weeks ago, because I lost the invitation, so I could say yes, thank you, DD is attending.

But no such luck on my end. And we’ve paid for the party. I’m so not going to agree to this sort of party next year. Family parties where it doesn’t matter how many people show up are far more manageable.

I forgot my SIL and kids were coming yesterday. Happily she emailed me asking if this was still a good time. So the afternoon was nice, instead of just more drama. I put the drama on hold for a few hours.

I loathe the mail. I know there are a dozen things in there all related to my grandmother’s death. And I just cannot deal with it this week, have been avoiding the inevitable opening of mail and dealing with it.

I have no garment fabric, which hardly seems possible. But I don’t. I have only home decorating fabric, and little remnants of garment fabric. Which is totally bizarre, since a year ago when I began sewing a lot again, it was completely the opposite situation.

I really thought I could make a sweater coat from some fleece I’ve been using as a wrap. But the wrap is one quarter yard too short to repurpose in this capacity. Oh so close and yet, so not going to happen today.

I purchased some gifts for DD for her birthday over the past few months. One of them is lost in the house. I hid it from her too well apparently.

Must run off to the dry cleaners to return alterations. I’m glad to have the work, but displeased with the timing. I am constantly offered some kind of work when I have about a dozen other bits of work to do. So it’s either a drought or a hurricane.

Blah, blah, blah. Must have lunch before I miss the opportunity.

New York, NY

I was quite surprised that things close in the city that bills itself as the city that never sleeps at night.  I thought I could go to the garment district on Sunday, but discovered that the places I really wanted to see there were closed Sunday.  And the other didn’t open until after I already needed to be at the airport.  This was unfortunate.

I had tried to figure out where to go and what to see before I left.  But it didn’t work out that way.  Most especially it didn’t work out because I wanted to help out with the wedding preparations and wasn’t sure when or where I would be needed.

I was able to get some really cool pictures. They were cool for me, anyway. I have recently learned to focus my camera instead of relying all the time on autofocus and autoflash. So I was able to take some shots that probably would not have come out for me in the past.

clouds from above

As added bonus, another friend from high school, not attending the wedding turned out to be in town at the same time. So I was able to see her and her sister too.

When I got home I got another surprise. DH and DD had been doing crafts together all weekend. How cool is that? They carved a pumpkin and DD painted a lot.

Now I’m trying to get back into my normal schedule of writing, cleaning the house, sewing, blah, blah, blah. I haven’t yet. Prior to the wedding, I was rushing around trying to compensate for the fact that I have neglected my own wardrobe. Now I’m volunteering in an ESL class once a week. And next week the school schedule is weird again. So I am trying to get back on track with fewer hours but the same amount of tasks.

Oh yeah, and I did some alterations for pay last week. And this Monday DD was home all day because DH and I forgot that my keys were in his car. So he left for work And DD and I were stranded for the day.

Yeah, we can be so organized sometimes.

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Today was much better.  A friend came over and we had a mommy playdate.  I say a mommy playdate because we did not go out to lunch or do anything like that.  We just goofed off and did some sewing.

I had a rant about two ridiculous Etsy sellers – one high maintenance, and one incompetent – that I had to deal with.  And we tossed around a bunch of business ideas, and talked about the unfriendly moms from dance class who have turned up again, still unfriendly.  In my usual manner I imagined they were just unfriendly to me.  Apparently, they are just unfriendly.

Blah, blah, blah.  It felt good to work and gab.

Having a visitor is always a good impetus for a mad cleaning run through the house.  I blasted through the mess as quickly as possible before she arrived, then stood there folding clothes and instructing on pattern layout and cutting, which worked out well.

DDs room is a disaster again.  I really need to purge it.  But I don’t know what to get rid of anymore.  She likes everything.  And she is not good about rotating the toys.  She wants them all out.

Anyway, I apparently needed a visitor.  Because now I feel better.

Check out this tree photo.  Awesome talent isn’t it?

Mi(y)sty Morning Walk by Doblonaut

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And who appears behind us?  Hyena and her stinky kid.  Those of you who have been with me for a long time will remember Hyena.  At that moment, I could not think of anyone that I would like to run into less.  I stood there, trying to think of someone. 

[mother daughter]

I turned toward the cashier and listened to Hyena tell Stinky not to get anything they already have and list off the top ten really lame bands for children five years younger than Stinky, because they already have those, just not in the car.  wtf?  Hyena then held their place in line while Stinky went off to find boy band du jour.

Happily, DH sensed my discontent and asked if I wanted to go to the car and get DD settled.  Good man!  Off we went to the car.  I wondered for a few steps about how Hyena would trash talk me at the office – because that is her habit – but then forgot about it until now. 

Excellent, love that I forgot, until I felt the urge to chat with you all.  Must not give a flip.

Being the super extra exciting person that I am; I am super extra excited about cleaning the house next week unfettered by DD.  I plan to drag at least one carload of things to charity.  And I look forward to doing so without her around trying to retrieve everything.

And I hope to get a ton of writing and sewing done. 

Who knew that college prep classes would bring about a declining population of people who can sew and change the oil in their own car.  That’s what I imagine anyway, from my own life experience.  I didn’t take home economics, or auto shop because I had to take French and Chemistry.  Making lasagna and tuning up the old whoopdee would have been a lot more fun and cost effective (at the time).  I would have loved to have spent the period after lunch sewing my own perfectly fitted prom dress.  But alas, I was taking Calculus.

I cursed my parents.  (Sometimes I still do.)  My dad made me change the tires and the oil in the car before he agreed to take me for a learners permit.  My mom made me hem my own pants.  I am now shocked to discover the number of people willing to pay to get a pair of pants hemmed.  Seriously?

I don’t say this in mockery.  I just didn’t know.  I knew that everybody didn’t get an old Singer for Christmas when she turned five.  That’s the if I give my kid this thing seven years before her peers maybe she’ll stop bugging me gene.  But surely by twelve they got grandmas machine.  Apparently not everybody.

It’s a weird world I live in.  I get to say to myself every week, really, other people knew that all along?

But the sarong is fabulous. Not finding a cover-up that wasn’t too big, too small, black, ugly, or outrageously expensive, or combination thereof, I resorted to making my own. It was cheap and easy, gotta love it.

I just cut a piece of fabric in this shape. The first piece of fabric I bought. It was knit, and three yards. I found directions somewhere saying use two and a half yards for an average size woman. I estimated myself to be an enormous size woman. Not so. Three yards was way too much. I cut it down to two and a half. This is much better.

It was so much better that I dug up several pieces of cotton fabric that I intended to make into something useful but never did. At this moment, I have two sarong for me, and two for DD.

More fabric is in the laundry. This could be a beach laundry lifesaver.

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